Electrical heater



J. I. ASHBAUGH.

ELECTRICAL HEATER.

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MW v ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

JOHN I. ASHBAUGllxOF CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE.

ELECTRICAL H EATER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 428,443, dated May 20, 1890.

Application filed October 21, 1889. Serial No. 327,676. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN I. ASHBAUGH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chattanooga, in the county of Hamilton and State of Tennessee, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electrical Heaters; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to an improvement in electric heaters, the object thereof being to simplify and perfect the means whereby electricity may be practically employed as a thermal agent; and the invention consists in the construction, arrangement, and combination of parts, substantially as will be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating my invention, Figure 1 is a horizonal sectional view of my improved electric heater with the outer metal jacket removed. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same, showing the enveloping metallic jacket. Fig. 3 is a sectional perspective view of a rod or bar of pressed and baked fire-clay, in which the wire is embedded, said wire being ready for incasement in the metallic jacket. Fig. tis a side elevation of said rod or bar incased in the metallic jacket and ready for use in the fines of steam-boilers for the purpose of heating or generating steam. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the rectangular form of my improved electric heater.

Like letters of reference designate like parts throughout the diiferent figures.

In carrying my invention into practical effect I first provide an amount of fire-clay. A suitable mold is then taken and filled half full of the fire-clay or of a clay mixture, which in the drawings is indicated by the letter A. The wires B are then adjusted in the clay, after which the mold is filled full of the fireclay. Said clay is then firmly pressed and consolidated into a firm mass and the block or brick is dried and baked. This brick is surrounded with a metallic case or jacket 0, which may be either plain, corrugated, fluted, or otherwise shaped, and is preferably made in two pieces fitting together snugly and firmly and held by screws or bolts or other securing means, as indicated in Fig. 2. The metallic jacket incases the fire-clay and holds it tightly.

In Figs. 3 and at I have shown a modification of my improved electric heater, it being made in the form of a cylindrical rod or bar, instead of in the rectangular form, as shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 5. A denotes in Figs. 3 and at the mass of fire-clay, which is dried and baked hard, having the conductors l3 running longitudinally through it, said mass of clay A being surrounded and held within the oylindrical metallic jacket 0. This form of heater is especially adapted for insertion into the flues of steam-boilers for the purpose of heating or generating steam.

By practical experimentation with electricity as a heat-producing force I have discovered that a platinum, silver, or any wire of a refractory material, in combination with a brick of fire-clay, which is firmly pressed and baked, containing the wire running through it from end to end, said brick being incased in a metallic case or jacket, provides the best form of electric heater.

It will be observed that when the clay or mixture of clay and similar material is prepared in the manner specified it will be a nonconductor of electricity and the best possible conductor of heat, on account of its adhesive qualities, after it has been thus pressed, dried, and baked, since the particles of clay orof the clay mixture will adhere very closely and tenaciously to any body or substance embedded therein, and hence all air will be excluded. From the fact that the clay brick possesses this quality as a non-conductor of electricity, and possesses also the further superior quality as a conductor of heat, it will be clear to those versed in the art that the heat generated by the passage of the electric current through the embedded wire will be absorbed more readily by the enveloping clay mass and that the least possible amount of electricity will be lost, thus reducing to a minimum the amount of electric current used, as well as diminishing the liability to accident from the fusion of the wire, which often occurs when a too heavy or an uneven current passes over the same. The heat generbrick of fire-clay or clay mixture, a conducting-Wire embedded therein, and a metallic jacket or casing surrounding the same, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

JOHN I. ASHBAUGH.

lVitnesses:

A. CONRAD CoRNELIsoN, D. G. CURTIS. 

